


happy new year!

by shockgore



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Other, Self-Hatred, au where the game protag joins team skull after everything, idk - Freeform, original the character dippin in to dole out some good ol comfort, the team isnt disbanded this doesnt make sense ok, they arent exactly romantic but they dont hate each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-16 23:45:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11263509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shockgore/pseuds/shockgore
Summary: guzma has a rough timea skull grunt gives him some company





	happy new year!

"God DAMN IT!"   
A loud slam jars the remaining residents of the shady house. New Year's Eve, the Shady House at the heart of Po Town had kept lit up with decorations from Christmas, now repurposed and wrapped up and down the staircases and various palm tree decorations with jury rigged stars. Most every member had left for the holiday to party with friends and family. The night was cold, and the grunts that stayed behind would hesitate to check on the upstairs uproar.  
Jade sat up at the sound. Her own friends had opted to party. Being a recluse, she stayed behind and decided to drink. She sat against the wall of her bedroom, feeling a residual shock from whatever had happened. She scowls some, taking one last drink of hard lemonade before setting it down on her nightstand. The grunt knew that yell damn well, and rose to her feet, opening and climbing out of her window.  
The roof was slippery in the Winter cold. Unlike the rest of the Alola region, Po Town had begun receiving snowfall from Mt. Lanakila in recent years... The shingles were only a hair bigger than Jade's feet, and she maneuvers carefully across to another window. She feels more shocks, hears more yelling. It's hard to process the chaos from outside, but...  
Her fingers slide the window up with ease, letting her back into the hall. The noise gets louder as she approaches a brightly painted door.  
Her bosses door.  
"What is WRONG WITH YOU, Guzma?!" She can hear him clearly now, his voice booming and slurred. "Everyone else had someone to go to!" Another slam. "Your closest friend has family to go back to!" Another. "Everybody you trust, is gone! You're alone right now and you deserve it!" The banging stops, replaced with a choked sob. "I'm alone–fuck."  
Jade felt a knot in her stomach, standing outside the door. She hesitates, waiting.  
And she's glad she is, jolting to the sound of shattering glass and a Guzma's despaired howl.  
"You deserve this!" He continues berating himself, pounding the wall. "You couldn't become a fuckin' captain, you can't lead a gang for shit, the one person you let in, the ONLY ONE, didn't even care! No one cares! And here you fuckin' are, another new year alone!"  
The knot rose to her throat... She's spent new years like that. Nights in emotional agony.   
A bitter silence falls across the house.  
It felt like an eternity passed before Jade got back up, standing in front of the door. Her brows knit together, concerned. Every few minutes, she thought she could hear more quiet sobs.  
Her hand raises up, and before she can really process anything else, she's knocking on her bosses door.  
An immediate "Fuck off!" Resounds behind the door. Jade almost does. But she kept her ground, and she speaks.  
"You're not partying with anyone, boss?" She didn't want to let off that she'd been listening... But she was concerned.  
It's quiet behind Guzma's door for a moment, before the knob gently clicks and opens a crack. Exhausted raccoon eyes stare down through the grunt.  
And that's when Jade wants to run. She swallows her pride, ready to speak.  
"Don't you have friends you should be with?" Guzma interrupts her.  
"I've told you before, I'm not a party person..." Jade responded quietly. "...Can I come in?"  
He keeps staring down at her in silence. You could about cut her discomfort with a butter knife.  
He steps aside, running a hand back through his hair.   
"Yeah, whatever. Don't expect anything great."  
Jade gently closes the door behind her, immediately taking note of the shattered merlot bottle and wine stains on the wall, joining the mass of graffiti.  
"So what the hell do you want?" Guzma slumps down in the one armchair at the back of the room, resting his head on the palm of his hand.  
"To check in," Jade responds, "I heard something.. Thought someone fell."  
"I'm fine!" He immediately snapped, slumping further back, "Fine, fucking...I didn't fall. Is that it?"  
"You don't seem fine." She objects nervously, sticking close to the door. "Is Plumeria out too? You're usually hanging out with her."  
"Plums is out. It's fucking New Years."  
"Why aren't you–"  
"I didn't fucking want to." He interrupts her again. "Holiday's bullshit. Just another three hundred whatever the hell days, then the cycle starts and fucks us all over again."  
"You got that right..." Jade hummed. She wasn't told to fuck off again, so she figured it was okay to step in, sitting on the side of Guzma's poorly made bed. He leans his head from staring at the wine mess to looking back at her.  
"Are-are you alright with this?" She's referring to herself staying in the room, "I can go if-"  
"I don't care right now, kid." He grumbles, "If you're here to pity me or laugh at me, just get it done with."  
"I don't understand." She frowns, confused. "I'm not here to do either of that."  
"I know this whole damn house, short stack. When it's quiet, you can hear everything. You're here to laugh."  
"I'm here to make sure you're okay." She corrects. "Boss, you made me promise to take care of my teammates like a week ago. You're my teammate too, and... I want to help. I want you to know you're not alone."  
Guzma's sour expression tightens. Jade shrunk some into her hoodie when he rose to his feet, striding down to the wine rack behind his bed. He worked the cork out with relative ease, taking a long swig while plopping down beside her. The bedspring squeaks loudly.  
They sat next to each other in awkward silence. Guzma puts the bottle down by their feet.  
"This just fucking sucks, y'know."  
"What would that be..?" She asks quietly.  
"Everything. I'm such a fucking prick to everyone in Team Skull, but... Everyone's invited me to their bashes. But I can't go."  
"Why not?"  
"Because I don't deserve everyone fucking caring about me! I beat my own grunts down whenever they fucked up until recently for fuck sake, but they worried about me!"  
"You gave them a home when everyone else shunned them."  
"They should have let me rot in ultra space with Lusamine. I didn't deserve to come back. I should have died out there, with the one person I thought cared about me."  
Jade looks up at him, frowning some.  
"And you," His voice gets low, glaring back down at her. Jade forces her intimidation down, looking back into pale gray eyes.  
"You brought the Team to ultra space to bring me home." He looks away, back to the stained wall.  
"Well, of course." She hums. "You're our boy."  
"I wasn't your boy." He growled. Jade falls quiet.  
"I've been hurting you since the day we fucking met in Malie City, when you first came here, when..." Guzma shakes his head, bowing down and putting his head in his hands. "I've been asking myself, what's wrong with me? But... I'm starting to think, what's wrong with you?"  
"What do you mean?" She didn't sound fazed.  
"You kept coming after us, after people who hurt you, when you didn't have to. You moved fuckin' mountains to keep my family alive. We hurt you, but.. Now you're one of us. Kid, what is wrong with you?"  
"The same thing as all of you guys." She'd admit. "You're broken; they're broken, I'm broken. But together, you feel whole... I never really had much of a family, but I'm comfortable here."  
He looks at her like she grew a second head, before laughing wryly. "Right...You're probably here to mock us. Rub how great you are in our faces." He takes one more large drink of merlot before Jade takes the bottle with relative ease, taking a drink herself. Her nose wrinkles up, hating the taste. She puts the bottle down before leaning against him.  
"Actually," Jade closed her eyes, her tone warm. "...I think you're pretty great."

**Author's Note:**

> SUP DUDES I HATE NEW YEARS  
> i was in a pokemon kick and super rusty (who am i kidding i still am) so i figured "i should totally mix the thing i hate with the thing i love, that'll make it easier for a bit"  
> lo and behold it did! and now my fossil writing is here to disgust you all yaaaay (o^∇^o)ﾉ


End file.
